


Five things that only happen on the jet. (And one that doesn’t.)

by Hagar



Series: Take Seven [7]
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: 5 Things, Drabble Sequence, Fluff, Gen, One Shot, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-16
Updated: 2010-06-16
Packaged: 2017-10-10 03:43:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/95100
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hagar/pseuds/Hagar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The jet is safe, somewhere temporary where it's only them, so there are things they do or let happen on the jet that they otherwise wouldn't.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Five things that only happen on the jet. (And one that doesn’t.)

It doesn't take a profiler to appreciate the symbolic value of the jet. It's an in-between place; it's theirs on most aspects that count; it's the most temporary of homes. Their jet is a place for temporary things, or for things that can only be temporarily allowed. Such as questions. On the way to a case they are all directed at what they are about to face: target-focused. On the way back, the questions are ones they can't or don't want to allow in their homes. Those questions are left on the jet, together with the means of handling them.

**No telling Reid to not show off**  
Reid stacks the deck, counts the card and takes full advantage of his ability to read his fellow players and their relative difficulty in reading him. The team can never prove he's cheating in every imaginable way but they all know he does, and if nothing else his glee is telling. They tease him about it but there's never any force behind it. Reid had been told to clip his own wings too many times, and they won't take part in it. They only ever play on the jet, and it's Reid only safe game, and he can have it.

**No pretending they don't know each other inside out**  
The moratorium on intra-team profiling doesn't hold in the jet. It can't: the space is too small. So they don't even pretend. JJ doesn't pretend she can't tell exactly how Hotch would like his tea, and Prentiss and Rossi don't pretend they aren't all but siccing her; Reid doesn't pretend he isn't hovering by JJ like they usually hover by him; Morgan doesn't deflect when he's called out on his confidence being practiced; Garcia calls them cabs and sends five videos of kittens on rumbas per flight; and Hotch pretends to sleep, basks in the familiar and lets them be.

**More than two drinks are okay**  
They're wary of drinking alone, and they're wary of being taken advantage at a public setting or being even a little compromised next to other LEOs so it's never more than a drink or two. Heading back from a bad one, JJ calls ahead and there will be a stocked mini-bar and waiting cabs at Quantico and no one to know but them. Spencer and JJ stop at three; Derek relaxes at five; and Rossi doesn't worry over his having to stop Emily and Hotch, because he knows that being able to trust is what it's really about for them.

**Improvised cooking**  
The jet doesn't have a kitchen. It can barely be said that it has a kitchenette. What they do have is a small fridge, a water dispenser and the tiniest of crappy microwave ovens. Also a power outlet, a physics doctor, Emily's collection of instant foods and JJ's neverending supply of fruits and chocolate. The results can be anything from beef soup with noodles to chocolate-dipped bananas. They should have taken a photo of Hotch's expression when he's seen the latter, Morgan asked why they weren't strawberries and Rossi complained that at his age he should watch his sugar intake.

**Teamwide baby panda breaks**  
JJ sneaks into Garcia's office for the baby-panda breaks; Rossi pretends he's researching social media; Reid claims academic curiosity, Morgan that it's for Garcia and Prentiss serendipitous timing. Hotch gives a blank stare and a false smile and walks away. Unless they're on the jet, have underslept for a week and sometimes some scotch had been involved. They just happened to prop the laptop so it's in his field of vision, Hotch had just happened to wander past, and then Emily or Dave fetch that tea and then another one as they go through all of Garcia's collection for Hotch.

**…and the one that doesn't. **  
Personal space of BAU members starts at two feets, three if the case hit close and up to five if someone had a really bad day. Then JJ will fall asleep on Reid's shoulder –timing this precise has to be deliberate – and half an hour later the four of them are sitting closer than they have to, knees touching and hands on shoulders, and Rossi sits next to Hotch rather than across. Morgan's elbow on Prentiss's shoulder, JJ hugging goodbye, Rossi slapping shoulders, Hotch standing within a foot of distance: these happen after they step off, because this they keep.


End file.
